Best Printers Under $100 for Home Use

The best printer under $100 for most homes in 2026 is a monochrome laser: the Brother HL-L2350DW, which prints at up to 32 pages per minute, holds a 250-sheet tray, and runs on toner that works out to roughly 2–3 cents per page. If you need color or a scanner under $100, the HP DeskJet 4255e all-in-one (about $70–100) is the more flexible pick, while the Canon PIXMA MG3620 (about $40–60) is the cheapest route to a working color printer on a desk. The sticker price is almost irrelevant: what decides whether a cheap printer is a bargain or a trap is how many pages a month you actually print, because a $50 inkjet can cost more to run in one year than a $100 laser costs to buy.

Our top picks

Top pickHOOBRO 2-Tier Printer Stand with Charging Station

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Also greatHUANUO Printer Stand with Storage Drawer

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• The under desk storage features a storage drawer…
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Also greatBeeveer 2 Pcs White Under Desk Printer

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Product	Key specs
HOOBRO 2-Tier Printer Stand with Charging Station	Power Socket: This printer stand has a practical… Office Assistant: Is your printer taking up too… Sturdy and Durable: This printer cart is made…	Check price
HUANUO Printer Stand with Storage Drawer	Save valuable desktop, counter, or shelf space with… The under desk storage features a storage drawer… This under desk printer cart can support up…	Check price
Beeveer 2 Pcs White Under Desk Printer	Versatile Use: this 2 pack printer stand can… Reliable Material: the under desk printer stand is… 4 Wheels with Locks, Smooth Movement: the printer…	Check price
HOOBRO Under Desk Printer Stand	Three-story Structure: Printer stand size: 17.9'' x 11''… Printer Table With Extra Lattice Drawer: The pull-out… The print stand is equipped with 4 detachable…	Check price

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Quick comparison: best printers under $100

Best overall: Brother HL-L2350DW

This is the pick for anyone who prints documents — boarding contracts, vaccination records, pet-sitter instructions, school forms, tax paperwork — and only occasionally needs a photo. Brother’s spec sheet lists 32 pages per minute, automatic two-sided printing, a 250-sheet paper tray, and a recommended monthly volume of roughly 250–2,000 pages, with a maximum duty cycle far above that. It connects over Wi-Fi or USB, and it does not need a subscription, an account, or an internet connection to keep printing.

Who it suits: households printing 50 pages a month or more, mostly in black and white. Main trade-off: no color and no scanner — if you need to copy a form or print a photo, you need a second device or a different pick. It is also the bulkiest option here, so measure your shelf before buying.

Best budget pick: Canon PIXMA MG3620

At roughly $40–60, the MG3620 is the cheapest way to get color, scanning, and copying in one small box. Canon rates it at 9.9 pages per minute in black and 5.7 in color, with a 100-sheet rear feed and Wi-Fi. It uses the PG-240 black and CL-241 color cartridge family, which is widely stocked.

Who it suits: light users — under about 30 pages a month — who want color for the occasional pet photo, birthday card, or school project. Main trade-off: running costs. A standard black cartridge yields only around 180 pages per Canon’s published figures, so heavy printing gets expensive fast, and there is no automatic document feeder for scanning multi-page documents.

Best all-in-one for paperwork: HP DeskJet 4255e

The 4255e is the pick if scanning and copying matter as much as printing. It pairs a flatbed scanner with a 35-sheet automatic document feeder, so you can drop in a stack of vet invoices or adoption paperwork and walk away. HP lists print speeds up to 8.5 ppm black and 5.5 ppm color, a 60-sheet input tray, and Wi-Fi with app-based setup. It uses the HP 67 cartridge family (standard and XL).

Who it suits: anyone who needs to digitise paperwork regularly but prints fewer than 50 pages a month. Main trade-off: the 60-sheet tray needs refilling often, and this class of printer is often sold in an “HP+” configuration that ties the hardware to an HP account, an internet connection, and original HP ink. Read the model description carefully before checkout — the same printer number can be sold in both configurations.

Best for small desks: Epson Expression Home XP-4200

If floor or desk space is the constraint, the XP-4200 is the most compact of the group. Epson lists up to 10 ppm black and 5 ppm color, a 100-sheet tray, four individual ink cartridges (so you replace only the color that runs out), and print/scan/copy with Wi-Fi. The separate cartridges are a genuine advantage over two-cartridge designs, where an empty cyan forces you to replace a combined color unit.

Who it suits: apartments, dorm rooms, and desks where a laser would dominate the surface. Main trade-off: like all inkjets in this bracket, it clogs if ignored — see the maintenance notes below.

What printing actually costs: a worked example

Ink yields are quoted against a standardised test page with about 5% ink coverage. Real-world documents with logos, tables, or photos can use two to three times that much ink, so treat the numbers below as a best case.

Now apply it. Say you print 300 pages a month — about ten pages a day — and plain paper costs roughly a cent a sheet.

• Laser: $75 of high-yield toner covers 3,000 pages, so 300 pages costs about $7.50 in toner plus $3.00 in paper — roughly $10.50 a month, or about $126 a year.
• Inkjet on standard cartridges: at 18¢ a page, 300 pages costs about $54 in ink plus $3.00 in paper — roughly $57 a month, or about $684 a year.

That is a difference of more than $550 a year, on a printer that costs $40–60 less up front. The break-even point sits somewhere around 40–60 pages a month: below it, a cheap inkjet is genuinely the better deal; above it, the laser pays for itself within the first few months.

How to choose: five numbers to check before you buy

• Your monthly page count. Check your last three months of printing. Under 30 pages: any pick here works. 30–60: borderline. Over 60, and mostly text: go laser.
• Cost per page, not printer price. Divide the cartridge price by its rated yield before you buy the printer. Anything above 15¢ a page gets expensive fast.
• Tray capacity. Budget inkjets hold 60–100 sheets; the laser holds 250. If you print in batches, a 60-sheet tray means refilling twice a week.
• Duplex. Automatic two-sided printing cuts paper use by roughly 40–50% on double-sided documents. It is standard on the laser, rare on sub-$100 inkjets.
• Connectivity. Most printers in this bracket connect only on the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band. If your router broadcasts a single combined network name, split the bands or plan on USB.

Which printer fits your situation?

Ownership realities nobody mentions at checkout

• Starter cartridges are not full cartridges. Printers ship with reduced-yield “setup” cartridges, often a third to a half of retail yield. Budget for a replacement within the first month or two.
• Inkjets clog when idle. Pigment and dye inks dry in the printhead. Printing a one-page nozzle check once a week keeps the head clear; a printer left off for two months may need several cleaning cycles, which burn ink from every cartridge.
• Lasers wear differently. Toner is the consumable you notice, but the drum unit, fuser, and pickup rollers have their own service lives — typically tens of thousands of pages. On a $100 laser, the printer is effectively disposable once the rollers go.
• Subscription ink plans have conditions. HP Instant Ink, Canon’s equivalent, and Epson’s plans all require an account and a connected printer, and page allowances reset monthly rather than banking indefinitely. Cancel and you return to retail cartridge prices — which is the number you should compare against in the first place.
• Third-party cartridges are a gamble. They cost far less per page, but firmware updates can block them, and print quality and leakage vary widely. On a printer under $100, a blocked cartridge can effectively total the machine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a laser printer really cheaper than an inkjet under $100?

It depends entirely on volume. At 20 pages a month, a $50 inkjet is cheaper overall because you barely buy ink. At 300 pages a month, toner at 2–3¢ a page beats ink at 12–20¢ a page by hundreds of dollars a year, which swamps the price difference between the machines.

How many pages will a cheap printer’s cartridge actually print?

Manufacturer yields — around 120 pages for a standard HP 67 black, roughly 180 for Canon PG-240, about 1,200 for Brother TN-730 — assume a standardised page with roughly 5% ink coverage. Documents with photos, charts, or heavy bold text can use two to three times that ink, so your real yield may be a third to a half of the rated figure.

Do I need Wi-Fi, or is a USB cable enough?

USB is enough if the printer sits next to a computer you always print from, and it avoids the most common setup failure — printers in this price range typically connect only on the 2.4 GHz band, which some modern routers hide behind a single combined network name. Wi-Fi is worth it if you print from a phone, which is how most pet photos and boarding confirmations get printed.

How often should I print to keep an inkjet from clogging?

Once a week is the practical minimum, even if it is just a one-page nozzle check. Inkjets that sit unused for a month or more often need repeated cleaning cycles, which consume ink from every cartridge and can still leave permanent clogs in the printhead.

Can I print pet photos on a sub-$100 printer?

You can print images, but the results are modest: these models use four dye-based inks and are tuned for documents, not photographs. For anything you intend to frame or give away, a dedicated photo printer or a print service will produce noticeably better colour and permanence than a budget all-in-one.

What is the catch with cheap ink subscriptions?

Subscription plans can genuinely lower costs for people who print a steady 50–300 pages a month, but they require an account, a connected printer, and in some configurations original-brand cartridges only. Check whether the specific model number you are buying is the subscription-tied variant, because the same printer is often sold in both a standard and an account-linked version at similar prices.